Latest news with #Maire
Edinburgh Live
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
Bride's horror as she and husband turn up to empty wedding reception with no guests
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info A couple were left devastated when they walked into their wedding reception to find none of their guests had turned up. Kalina Marie and her husband, Shane, had been looking forward to what they thought would be the best day of their lives, surrounded by their nearest and dearest. But instead, they found themselves walking into an almost empty venue. The couple, from Oregon, entered the grand but eerily vacant reception hall with stoic expressions on their faces. The only sound filling the room was Miley Cyrus' "When I Look at You", its poignant lyrics "When my world is falling apart" echoing through the emptiness. Despite the disappointment, the couple, who were accompanied by their son, put on a brave face as they celebrated with the few guests who did show up. Marie shared the heartbreaking moment on TikTok, where it has since been viewed over seven million times, reports the Mirror. "This is our entrance to our Masquerade ball," she wrote in the caption. "The Masquerade ball that I have talked excessively about for the last 10 months. The same ball that I not only digitally invited over 75 people to. But also spent money to send 25 beautiful invitations out to. (Image: kalina_marie_23/Tiktok) "FIVE PEOPLE SHOWED UP! ! ! ! ! ! ! Like, are you kidding me! ? ! ? As you see in the video, we enter the venue. And no one is there. The invite said 1pm. My mum messaged me at 1:15pm that no one was there. My husband and I finally showed up at 2 o'clock, to five people, in a venue planned for 40." Maire revealed her devastation as she had envisioned entering a venue buzzing with cheers for the new couple, but instead faced a sea of vacant chairs. "All the wasted food and drinks," Maire bemoaned. "All the empty tables and chairs. Every moment of my reception changed to adapt." Nevertheless, she and her partner decided to make the most out of the situation, enjoying dances with their few guests and sharing their first dance as a married couple. (Image: kalina_marie_23/Tiktok) "It just makes me think, like, why? What did we do? Am I that bad of a person? What did my husband ever do to deserve any of this?" Maire pondered, struggling to understand why people failed to turn up. She expressed how distressing it was that so-called friends hadn't even reached out post-wedding to extend congratulations or explain their absence. This TikTok saga sparked a massive response, garnering thousands of comments, with many wondering if there might be another side to the story. "How can people RSVP 'yes' and then not show up?" one bewildered user queried. "Were they just invited to the reception and not the ceremony?" questioned another. In an update a week ago, the couple, who have been together for nine years and announced their wedding date in January, admitted they were "still a little embarrassed and still moving through the stages of grief," as well as "still dealing with anger. "I wouldn't even wish this on my worst enemy," Marie added.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Her boyfriend fell asleep on the train. Then she spent the six-hour journey talking to her future husband
New Zealander Maire Clifford was gazing out the window on a train traveling from London to Edinburgh, Scotland. The train was weaving north out of King's Cross station, with cityscapes gradually morphing into stretches of green fields. It was the year 2000. Maire was in her late 20s and had been living in the UK for a couple of years. She was currently dating a bartender, who was joining her on the trip. Gazing out the window was only interesting up to a point — and Maire's boyfriend was out cold, fast asleep in the seat next to her. The train journey was set to take six hours. 'I was like, 'Okay, this is going to be really boring,'' Maire recalls to CNN Travel today. 'So I went through to the smoking carriage.' Back in the early 2000s, the UK had yet to introduce a smoking ban on public transport. In designated areas of the London to Edinburgh train, passengers were permitted to light a cigarette. Back then, Maire was a social smoker. She walked into the smoking area of the train and found it almost empty, aside from a young guy with a large backpack. She asked him for a light and he obliged, smiling. 'And then somehow I sat down, and we started talking,' recalls Maire. 'And I just remember being struck by how easy, like there was a real sense of familiarity.' The man with the lighter was Andy Bain, a 27-year-old who'd grown up in England with Scottish family. Now he was based in Edinburgh, but he'd just returned from a stint traveling across Tanzania and Zanzibar. 'That was me going home to Edinburgh — having been overseas — on the train where we met for the first time,' Andy tells CNN Travel. Time away from the UK had given Andy the headspace to think and reconsider his approach to life, relationships, work and travel. 'I'd kind of not had a great relationship prior to Maire, and not really any great relationships, I guess,' he reflects today. 'I'm not putting any blame or anything. People just are wrong for each other. But I made this conscious decision that I wasn't going to be seeking a relationship. I wasn't going to basically talk to anyone or put myself out there in any way, shape or form. I just needed to get my head back together.' Then, while camping in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater, Andy was struck by the incredible beauty of the landscape and reassessed this approach. 'It's this beautiful natural safari reserve and we were camping right on the rim of it,' he recalls. 'I got up in the morning and there was a herd of zebras drinking from the campsite waterfall… I kind of just sat there, and I was like, 'Well, whatever you've done in your life, or whatever has been done to you — good or bad — it's led you to this amazing thing, which is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life.' And then I was just like, 'Well, I think it's just time to get back out there, open yourself up again to the world and see what happens.'' Andy flew back to London, happened to miss his booked train to Edinburgh and ended up, by coincidence, on the same train as Maire. Andy will never forget the moment Maire first walked through the door of the carriage. 'I'm sitting in the smoking compartment, and then the train starts, and then the door slides open and this one walks through and looks at me and says, 'Have you got a light?'' recalls Andy, smiling. 'So not only was it immediately after I'd kind of said, 'I'm going to open myself up to the world.' But I'd missed the train that I was supposed to be on. And then the first person that I really met after that decision, through that kind of happy accident, was Maire.' Today, looking back, Andy says the series of unexpected, life changing events made him 'believe in fate.' But in that moment, on that day on the train in the year 2000, neither Andy nor Maire had any idea of the significance of their meeting. For one, from the outset, Maire told Andy she was traveling with a boyfriend. They both saw their unexpected travel connection as grounded in potential friendship, rather than romantic promise. Still, Maire was struck by the thought that 'the connection was unreal' with Andy. They were strangers, but they opened up quickly. 'He obviously told me the story that he just shared with you about the Ngorongoro Crater,' says Maire. 'That's also what I was struck by… I think that it takes a certain type of person to be able to notice those special moments when they happen.' In turn, Maire shared stories of her childhood in New Zealand, of moving to the UK and her subsequent travels across Europe. It felt, she says, like 'both of us had that approach to life of just, I think, really noticing the special moments and being impressed by the beauty in the world.' After a while, Maire's mind turned back to her sleeping boyfriend in the other carriage. She figured she should go back and check on him. But she found him where she'd left him, still out cold. 'He was still sleeping. So then came back to Andy's carriage, and so we just talked and talked over the rest of the six-hour, seven-hour journey,' says Maire. 'I remember him saying to me, 'Oh, you're a really sound lady.'' She'd never really heard the expression before — it seemed very British, and made her laugh. Andy was sweet, Maire thought. But there was nothing obviously romantic between them. It was just a connection, a potential friendship, forged on a train speeding up to Scotland. Both figured it was as likely they'd never meet again. But they enjoyed the moment. 'It was a really easy chat,' says Andy. 'Just kind of our whole general vibe just clicked…I don't remember thinking, 'She's really hot,' you know, or anything like that. It was just, 'She's really cool.' And it was really, really nice just to have just such an easy conversation with someone. There was no effort. It was just so, so simple.' 'It wasn't like, 'Ah he's hot,'' agrees Maire. 'It was just like, 'Ah, he's cool.'' As the train continued up the East Coast main line, tracing the coastline at North Berwick before offering travelers their first glimpse of Arthur's Seat, the ancient extinct volcano that looms over Edinburgh, Maire spontaneously wrote down her email address on Andy's leftover anti-malaria tablet packet. 'Stay in touch,' she said, before saying goodbye. When Maire left the smokers' carriage, Andy heard the two travelers behind him react. 'They were two younger guys, sitting behind me — and one just turned to the other and went 'Un-flipping-believable,'' Andy recalls, laughing. 'Because to them, I'd just been sitting there, and then this hot chick sat down, and we'd got on, and then swapped details. I mean, that just doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. I just remember that was just really funny.' The train pulled into Edinburgh Waverly station and Andy hauled his bag onto his back and traipsed back to his apartment. Meanwhile, Maire disembarked the train with her boyfriend for the sightseeing weekend in Scotland. 'When I got off the train… and that whole weekend around Edinburgh, I kept, even though I was with that other person, I kept thinking, 'I hope I bump into that guy Andy again,'' recalls Maire. She didn't. But a week or so later, Maire dropped Andy a friendly email: 'Hey traveling man,' the message began. 'And then we started emailing back and forth,' she recalls. A couple weeks later, Maire told her best friend Trudy about her new pen pal. She described the story of how they'd met on the train, kept each other company for the duration of the journey and swapped details. 'I remember Trudy saying to me, 'I think that there's something between you two.' And I was like, 'Oh, don't be ridiculous. He's so nice. Just a good friend.' But the emails didn't drop off. In fact, they became more frequent as the weeks turned into months. 'We ended up just communicating on the reg, and that progressed from emails to phone calls,' recalls Maire. By then, Maire's bartender boyfriend was in the past. But she still didn't see Andy as a potential love interest. 'Then, for my birthday, he sent me a book: 'Where the Wild Things Are,'' recalls Maire. 'It just so happened to be, not that he knew this, my favorite childhood book. And as I unwrapped it, and I hadn't seen that book cover for decades, it just really touched a deep part in me. I felt really seen that he would select such a cool present for me.' Andy genuinely had no idea of the significance of the book for Maire. He'd been inspired to buy it for her after an email exchange where he'd shared he was stressed at work and Maire offered some advice. 'She'd said, 'Oh just imagine that we're on a boat, floating in the sea, and everything's really relaxing,'' he says. 'And then in my head, what I saw was the boat from 'Where the Wild Things Are.'' Andy and Maire's shared love of the Maurice Sendak picture book felt like another sign of their deep connection. And shortly afterwards, Andy called Maire to let her know he'd be down in London for work. 'We arranged to go out in Shoreditch that night and have a big catch up,' recalls Maire. 'We went out and got pretty trashed.' Maire ended up crashing at Andy's hotel. But just as a friend. Nothing romantic happened between them. 'We were still just good friends,' says Andy. 'When I said, 'You can come and stay in my hotel room, it was literally as a mate.'' 'I jokingly say, it's probably because I had a bit of lettuce hanging off my cheek from falling asleep into my kebab,' says Maire. 'But I really felt like he proved in that moment that he's a man of integrity, and a man that I could be safe around, and that he was who I thought he was.' The next day, Andy struggled through a hangover at his work training course. But on the train back to Edinburgh, his phone buzzed with a message from Maire. 'I remember getting a text from her just going, 'I've come home with the biggest smile on my face, and it's all because of you. Andy Bain. It was just such a great, great evening.'' Andy smiled back at his Nokia 8110 cell phone. Then he found himself thinking back on their conversations from the night before. 'We just chatted about stuff that felt important to us as people,' he says. 'It wasn't small talk… And then the next thing, Maire was talking about coming up to Edinburgh for Hogmanay (Scottish New Year's Eve celebrations) with a group of friends.' Andy immediately invited Maire and her friends to stay with him in Edinburgh. But while Maire's friends celebrated the new year in the city's bars and pubs, Andy and Maire largely stayed in Andy's apartment, spending every moment together deep in conversation. 'That first night, we sat on the sofa and we talked for eight hours,' Maire recalls. 'About halfway through that conversation, he says to me, 'Do you believe in soulmates… Because I think that you're mine.'' This conversation was still couched in terms of friendship. But the two spent the next 'three days together, just talking.' 'And then, on the third day, we're sitting there talking, and he reaches over and he puts his hand on my knee, and he says, 'I really love you,'' recalls Maire. 'And I'm like, 'I really love you too.' And he's like, 'No, I'm in love with you.'' Maire stared at Andy, in disbelief, for a moment. But deep down, she knew his words were true. That she felt the same. 'We hadn't even kissed,' she says today. 'It was just our values on things were so the same,' explains Andy. 'Our experiences of things were so the same… That's why I said the soulmate thing. Because it just felt different to any other kind of friendship that I'd ever had. It hit me, the realization that, 'I just love you. I'm in love with you.'' Andy said the words aloud without thinking. He knew they were true. They felt right. 'It wasn't a play, or it wasn't a move, or it wasn't something that I really thought about,' he says. 'It was just, it was a physical need that I needed to say it.' Still, something had shifted between Maire and Andy in that moment. 'I knew that despite my fear of ruining our amazing connection, I had to give it a shot,' Maire says. 'We kissed for the first time,' says Andy. 'It wasn't a disaster, all of that kind of good stuff. We were compatible as boyfriend and girlfriend, as well as friends.' Maire went back to London, but she returned a week later to surprise Andy for his birthday. 'She had phoned loads of my friends and we had this impromptu party,' he recalls. 'It was really lovely, one of the nicest things that anyone's ever done for me.' From there, Maire and Andy started dating long distance, commuting between London and Edinburgh, traveling back and forth on the train line where they first met. They both coped with the distance in different ways. 'As soon as we were apart, I'd be like, 'Oh yeah, cool, whatever.' But Maire would really miss me, but then the longer time went on, I would start to miss her, but she would…not get over me, but wouldn't miss me as much,' says Andy, laughing. 'There was a bit of a mismatch there, but we would meet up again and, like, bang, everything would be awesome.' After several months of goodbyes and train journeys up and down the country, Andy managed to transfer to his company's London office. Living together 'just was really easy, it was really natural,' says Andy. And about six weeks after he'd moved south, Andy had a revelation. 'Into my head popped the thought: 'This girl's amazing. She's so beautiful, so amazing, so cool. You should marry her.'' Andy surprised himself with the thought. His parents were divorced. He'd never really thought about marriage. He wasn't sure he really believed in the concept. But then he found himself thinking about his paternal grandparents, who'd been happily in love for decades before they passed away. 'When I was born, my granddad bought my grandmother a ring, because I was the first grandchild — this gold ring that she wore. And then when she passed, I got it, and I had it on a chain around my neck,' Andy recalls. 'And when I had this thought to marry Maire, we were in Paddington Station, amongst all the Burger King wrappers or whatever… And so I got my ring off my neck, I got down on one knee, and I said, 'Will you marry me?'' Maire, of course, said yes. The couple embraced in the busy train concourse. 'Then we were on the train and we've just got engaged, so we're all cuddly and smoochy and giggly,' says Maire. 'And I had a really incredibly strong sense of two people standing next to me.' Maire looked up, and there was no one there. She thought about Andy's grandparents — the ones who'd passed on the ring. She wondered if the sensation she'd felt was the older couple watching over them. 'I said to Andy, 'I feel like this is for you. I feel like they want you to know that they're here, this is for you.'' Then, that night, Maire dreamed that Andy's grandparents spoke to her, saying: 'Welcome to the family.' 'I woke up Andy, and I said to him, 'I got it all wrong. That wasn't for you. That was for me.'' It felt significant. And even more so when, later on, Maire and Andy relayed Maire's dream to Andy's mother. 'My mum went white as a sheet,' recalls Andy. 'And we were like, 'What? What?' And she said when my dad had taken my mum up to Edinburgh to meet his family — and my granddad was this kind of staunch Scottish guy — he'd stood up from his chair and said, 'Welcome to the family,' to her — those exact words.' 'I know not everybody believes in that kind of stuff,' says Maire. 'But for us, this was a really special moment… And the ring was all about celebrating Andy's existence. So it's a real honor to wear it and to look after it.' Maire and Andy got married a couple of years later in 2003, in Maire's native New Zealand. 'Maire's a planner extraordinaire,' says Andy. 'She used to be an event coordinator and planner and all of that. I can take absolutely no credit for anything. Maire just completely ran with it and organized this whole wedding in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand.' 'I wanted the wedding to be a retreat for everybody. I wanted it to feel quite special and intimate. And so there were only 45 people invited,' says Maire. 'We had family traveling from all over New Zealand to attend, and then family from the UK and friends from the UK.' The wedding party caught the ferry from Wellington down to the Marlborough Sounds and all gathered at a 19th-century building called Furneaux Lodge to celebrate Maire and Andy's union. Maire and Andy wrote their own vows. Maire walked down the aisle to a piece of music from the movie 'Life is Beautiful' — an Oscar-winning Italian movie they saw together at the cinema not long after they first got together, and which Maire says 'really touched us both, and really spoke to us.' It was the perfect day. Maire and Andy wrote their own vows, recalling their relationship and harking back to that moment in Edinburgh when they went from friends to lovers. Maire took Andy's name, becoming Maire Bain. Today, more than two decades since their wedding, Andy and Maire — who took Andy's name following the wedding, becoming Maire Bain — live together in New Zealand, with two teenage daughters. They loved becoming parents and raising their children together. 'We really prioritized raising our kids,' says Maire. 'One of our big connections is our childhoods and a lot of your values come from what you experienced or didn't experience as a child, and so Andy and I went into parenting with a very strong sense of the kind of environment that we wanted to raise our kids in.' But now their daughters are getting older and the couple are enjoying spending time just the two of them again. This past January, they went to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia. 'We were at a time in our life where we had a lot of things to celebrate,' says Maire. 'We were coming up to our 22nd wedding anniversary. Our 25th year of knowing each other. It was my 10 year sober-versary. A whole lot of just good things to celebrate.' They're both big believers in signs and 'there were so many little things that would remind us of our wedding, or our 25 years together on that trip,' as Andy puts it. On the last night, Maire and Andy enjoyed a private dinner in their hotel. 'And then, Andy didn't know it, but I had snuck my wedding dress in my suitcase,' says Maire. She had the idea of surprising Andy with a hark back to their wedding. 'I'd had a word with the girls at the resort, and I'd said to them, 'He's going to walk in by himself. Give him a minute, and then if you could slip this song on, and then I'll walk in.'' The chosen track, of course, was the theme from the movie 'Life is Beautiful' — the music Maire walked down the aisle to 20 years earlier. When Andy heard the chords, he couldn't believe it. 'Our wedding music is on, and she's not here to hear it. 'What's going on?'' recalls Andy. 'And then I looked around to see where she was, and then she was just standing there, in her wedding dress with flowers, just there. And I was just like, 'Oh, it's the single most romantic thing that's ever happened to me.' It was stunning. It was absolutely amazing. And she looks as beautiful now as she did then. It was just so cool and just so wonderful.' As they sat there together, wiping away tears, laughing, Andy and Maire found themselves reflecting on the wedding, their life together since and the train meeting that started it all. Maire and Andy no longer smoke, but Maire jokes that because she met Andy, she's 'so grateful I smoked back then.' In general, when Maire reflects on her life with Andy, 'grateful' is the word she keeps coming back to. 'And supported. I feel really supported,' she reflects. 'We've learned within our marriage and individually as well, and we've supported each other's individual growth, and that comes from that friendship as well…Our love has grown so strong over the decades. He is the most gorgeous man.' As for Andy, he says Maire is 'still the coolest person I've ever met.' 'I love watching her at parties and stuff like that. She's the kind of person that lights up a room,' he says. 'I'm just so grateful to have found her, because I cannot think of anyone better for me than Maire, she's still my best friend. I still have the best chats with her. She makes me laugh more than anyone else, and the great joy of my life is when I can make her laugh.' It's this strong friendship that's kept the couple solid through life's ups and downs — because as Andy says, 'like all real, true relationships' there have been tougher moments during their 25 years together. 'Through it all, our friendship has been there,' he says. 'And it just feels weirdly fated. There were so many things that could have stopped us meeting… Right person, right place, right time… I just feel like in this really weird way if the universe has got a plan for you, and there's something there, it's going to happen.'
CNN
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Her boyfriend fell asleep on the train. Then she spent the six-hour journey talking to her future husband
New Zealander Maire Clifford was gazing out the window on a train traveling from London to Edinburgh, Scotland. The train was weaving north out of King's Cross station, with cityscapes gradually morphing into stretches of green fields. It was the year 2000. Maire was in her late 20s and had been living in the UK for a couple of years. She was currently dating a bartender, who was joining her on the trip. Gazing out the window was only interesting up to a point — and Maire's boyfriend was out cold, fast asleep in the seat next to her. The train journey was set to take six hours. 'I was like, 'Okay, this is going to be really boring,'' Maire recalls to CNN Travel today. 'So I went through to the smoking carriage.' Back in the early 2000s, the UK had yet to introduce a smoking ban on public transport. In designated areas of the London to Edinburgh train, passengers were permitted to light a cigarette. Back then, Maire was a social smoker. She walked into the smoking area of the train and found it almost empty, aside from a young guy with a large backpack. She asked him for a light and he obliged, smiling. 'And then somehow I sat down, and we started talking,' recalls Maire. 'And I just remember being struck by how easy, like there was a real sense of familiarity.' The man with the lighter was Andy Bain, a 27-year-old who'd grown up in England with Scottish family. Now he was based in Edinburgh, but he'd just returned from a stint traveling across Tanzania and Zanzibar. 'That was me going home to Edinburgh — having been overseas — on the train where we met for the first time,' Andy tells CNN Travel. Time away from the UK had given Andy the headspace to think and reconsider his approach to life, relationships, work and travel. 'I'd kind of not had a great relationship prior to Maire, and not really any great relationships, I guess,' he reflects today. 'I'm not putting any blame or anything. People just are wrong for each other. But I made this conscious decision that I wasn't going to be seeking a relationship. I wasn't going to basically talk to anyone or put myself out there in any way, shape or form. I just needed to get my head back together.' Then, while camping in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater, Andy was struck by the incredible beauty of the landscape and reassessed this approach. 'It's this beautiful natural safari reserve and we were camping right on the rim of it,' he recalls. 'I got up in the morning and there was a herd of zebras drinking from the campsite waterfall… I kind of just sat there, and I was like, 'Well, whatever you've done in your life, or whatever has been done to you — good or bad — it's led you to this amazing thing, which is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life.' And then I was just like, 'Well, I think it's just time to get back out there, open yourself up again to the world and see what happens.'' Andy flew back to London, happened to miss his booked train to Edinburgh and ended up, by coincidence, on the same train as Maire. Andy will never forget the moment Maire first walked through the door of the carriage. 'I'm sitting in the smoking compartment, and then the train starts, and then the door slides open and this one walks through and looks at me and says, 'Have you got a light?'' recalls Andy, smiling. 'So not only was it immediately after I'd kind of said, 'I'm going to open myself up to the world.' But I'd missed the train that I was supposed to be on. And then the first person that I really met after that decision, through that kind of happy accident, was Maire.' Today, looking back, Andy says the series of unexpected, life changing events made him 'believe in fate.' But in that moment, on that day on the train in the year 2000, neither Andy nor Maire had any idea of the significance of their meeting. For one, from the outset, Maire told Andy she was traveling with a boyfriend. They both saw their unexpected travel connection as grounded in potential friendship, rather than romantic promise. Still, Maire was struck by the thought that 'the connection was unreal' with Andy. They were strangers, but they opened up quickly. 'He obviously told me the story that he just shared with you about the Ngorongoro Crater,' says Maire. 'That's also what I was struck by… I think that it takes a certain type of person to be able to notice those special moments when they happen.' In turn, Maire shared stories of her childhood in New Zealand, of moving to the UK and her subsequent travels across Europe. It felt, she says, like 'both of us had that approach to life of just, I think, really noticing the special moments and being impressed by the beauty in the world.' After a while, Maire's mind turned back to her sleeping boyfriend in the other carriage. She figured she should go back and check on him. But she found him where she'd left him, still out cold. 'He was still sleeping. So then came back to Andy's carriage, and so we just talked and talked over the rest of the six-hour, seven-hour journey,' says Maire. 'I remember him saying to me, 'Oh, you're a really sound lady.'' She'd never really heard the expression before — it seemed very British, and made her laugh. Andy was sweet, Maire thought. But there was nothing obviously romantic between them. It was just a connection, a potential friendship, forged on a train speeding up to Scotland. Both figured it was as likely they'd never meet again. But they enjoyed the moment. 'It was a really easy chat,' says Andy. 'Just kind of our whole general vibe just clicked…I don't remember thinking, 'She's really hot,' you know, or anything like that. It was just, 'She's really cool.' And it was really, really nice just to have just such an easy conversation with someone. There was no effort. It was just so, so simple.' 'It wasn't like, 'Ah he's hot,'' agrees Maire. 'It was just like, 'Ah, he's cool.'' As the train continued up the East Coast main line, tracing the coastline at North Berwick before offering travelers their first glimpse of Arthur's Seat, the ancient extinct volcano that looms over Edinburgh, Maire spontaneously wrote down her email address on Andy's leftover anti-malaria tablet packet. 'Stay in touch,' she said, before saying goodbye. When Maire left the smokers' carriage, Andy heard the two travelers behind him react. 'They were two younger guys, sitting behind me — and one just turned to the other and went 'Un-flipping-believable,'' Andy recalls, laughing. 'Because to them, I'd just been sitting there, and then this hot chick sat down, and we'd got on, and then swapped details. I mean, that just doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. I just remember that was just really funny.' The train pulled into Edinburgh Waverly station and Andy hauled his bag onto his back and traipsed back to his apartment. Meanwhile, Maire disembarked the train with her boyfriend for the sightseeing weekend in Scotland. 'When I got off the train… and that whole weekend around Edinburgh, I kept, even though I was with that other person, I kept thinking, 'I hope I bump into that guy Andy again,'' recalls Maire. She didn't. But a week or so later, Maire dropped Andy a friendly email: 'Hey traveling man,' the message began. 'And then we started emailing back and forth,' she recalls. A couple weeks later, Maire told her best friend Trudy about her new pen pal. She described the story of how they'd met on the train, kept each other company for the duration of the journey and swapped details. 'I remember Trudy saying to me, 'I think that there's something between you two.' And I was like, 'Oh, don't be ridiculous. He's so nice. Just a good friend.' But the emails didn't drop off. In fact, they became more frequent as the weeks turned into months. 'We ended up just communicating on the reg, and that progressed from emails to phone calls,' recalls Maire. By then, Maire's bartender boyfriend was in the past. But she still didn't see Andy as a potential love interest. 'Then, for my birthday, he sent me a book: 'Where the Wild Things Are,'' recalls Maire. 'It just so happened to be, not that he knew this, my favorite childhood book. And as I unwrapped it, and I hadn't seen that book cover for decades, it just really touched a deep part in me. I felt really seen that he would select such a cool present for me.' Andy genuinely had no idea of the significance of the book for Maire. He'd been inspired to buy it for her after an email exchange where he'd shared he was stressed at work and Maire offered some advice. 'She'd said, 'Oh just imagine that we're on a boat, floating in the sea, and everything's really relaxing,'' he says. 'And then in my head, what I saw was the boat from 'Where the Wild Things Are.'' Andy and Maire's shared love of the Maurice Sendak picture book felt like another sign of their deep connection. And shortly afterwards, Andy called Maire to let her know he'd be down in London for work. 'We arranged to go out in Shoreditch that night and have a big catch up,' recalls Maire. 'We went out and got pretty trashed.' Maire ended up crashing at Andy's hotel. But just as a friend. Nothing romantic happened between them. 'We were still just good friends,' says Andy. 'When I said, 'You can come and stay in my hotel room, it was literally as a mate.'' 'I jokingly say, it's probably because I had a bit of lettuce hanging off my cheek from falling asleep into my kebab,' says Maire. 'But I really felt like he proved in that moment that he's a man of integrity, and a man that I could be safe around, and that he was who I thought he was.' The next day, Andy struggled through a hangover at his work training course. But on the train back to Edinburgh, his phone buzzed with a message from Maire. 'I remember getting a text from her just going, 'I've come home with the biggest smile on my face, and it's all because of you. Andy Bain. It was just such a great, great evening.'' Andy smiled back at his Nokia 8110 cell phone. Then he found himself thinking back on their conversations from the night before. 'We just chatted about stuff that felt important to us as people,' he says. 'It wasn't small talk… And then the next thing, Maire was talking about coming up to Edinburgh for Hogmanay (Scottish New Year's Eve celebrations) with a group of friends.' Andy immediately invited Maire and her friends to stay with him in Edinburgh. But while Maire's friends celebrated the new year in the city's bars and pubs, Andy and Maire largely stayed in Andy's apartment, spending every moment together deep in conversation. 'That first night, we sat on the sofa and we talked for eight hours,' Maire recalls. 'About halfway through that conversation, he says to me, 'Do you believe in soulmates… Because I think that you're mine.'' This conversation was still couched in terms of friendship. But the two spent the next 'three days together, just talking.' 'And then, on the third day, we're sitting there talking, and he reaches over and he puts his hand on my knee, and he says, 'I really love you,'' recalls Maire. 'And I'm like, 'I really love you too.' And he's like, 'No, I'm in love with you.'' Maire stared at Andy, in disbelief, for a moment. But deep down, she knew his words were true. That she felt the same. 'We hadn't even kissed,' she says today. 'It was just our values on things were so the same,' explains Andy. 'Our experiences of things were so the same… That's why I said the soulmate thing. Because it just felt different to any other kind of friendship that I'd ever had. It hit me, the realization that, 'I just love you. I'm in love with you.'' Andy said the words aloud without thinking. He knew they were true. They felt right. 'It wasn't a play, or it wasn't a move, or it wasn't something that I really thought about,' he says. 'It was just, it was a physical need that I needed to say it.' Still, something had shifted between Maire and Andy in that moment. 'I knew that despite my fear of ruining our amazing connection, I had to give it a shot,' Maire says. 'We kissed for the first time,' says Andy. 'It wasn't a disaster, all of that kind of good stuff. We were compatible as boyfriend and girlfriend, as well as friends.' Maire went back to London, but she returned a week later to surprise Andy for his birthday. 'She had phoned loads of my friends and we had this impromptu party,' he recalls. 'It was really lovely, one of the nicest things that anyone's ever done for me.' From there, Maire and Andy started dating long distance, commuting between London and Edinburgh, traveling back and forth on the train line where they first met. They both coped with the distance in different ways. 'As soon as we were apart, I'd be like, 'Oh yeah, cool, whatever.' But Maire would really miss me, but then the longer time went on, I would start to miss her, but she would…not get over me, but wouldn't miss me as much,' says Andy, laughing. 'There was a bit of a mismatch there, but we would meet up again and, like, bang, everything would be awesome.' After several months of goodbyes and train journeys up and down the country, Andy managed to transfer to his company's London office. Living together 'just was really easy, it was really natural,' says Andy. And about six weeks after he'd moved south, Andy had a revelation. 'Into my head popped the thought: 'This girl's amazing. She's so beautiful, so amazing, so cool. You should marry her.'' Andy surprised himself with the thought. His parents were divorced. He'd never really thought about marriage. He wasn't sure he really believed in the concept. But then he found himself thinking about his paternal grandparents, who'd been happily in love for decades before they passed away. 'When I was born, my granddad bought my grandmother a ring, because I was the first grandchild — this gold ring that she wore. And then when she passed, I got it, and I had it on a chain around my neck,' Andy recalls. 'And when I had this thought to marry Maire, we were in Paddington Station, amongst all the Burger King wrappers or whatever… And so I got my ring off my neck, I got down on one knee, and I said, 'Will you marry me?'' Maire, of course, said yes. The couple embraced in the busy train concourse. 'Then we were on the train and we've just got engaged, so we're all cuddly and smoochy and giggly,' says Maire. 'And I had a really incredibly strong sense of two people standing next to me.' Maire looked up, and there was no one there. She thought about Andy's grandparents — the ones who'd passed on the ring. She wondered if the sensation she'd felt was the older couple watching over them. 'I said to Andy, 'I feel like this is for you. I feel like they want you to know that they're here, this is for you.'' Then, that night, Maire dreamed that Andy's grandparents spoke to her, saying: 'Welcome to the family.' 'I woke up Andy, and I said to him, 'I got it all wrong. That wasn't for you. That was for me.'' It felt significant. And even more so when, later on, Maire and Andy relayed Maire's dream to Andy's mother. 'My mum went white as a sheet,' recalls Andy. 'And we were like, 'What? What?' And she said when my dad had taken my mum up to Edinburgh to meet his family — and my granddad was this kind of staunch Scottish guy — he'd stood up from his chair and said, 'Welcome to the family,' to her — those exact words.' 'I know not everybody believes in that kind of stuff,' says Maire. 'But for us, this was a really special moment… And the ring was all about celebrating Andy's existence. So it's a real honor to wear it and to look after it.' Maire and Andy got married a couple of years later in 2003, in Maire's native New Zealand. 'Maire's a planner extraordinaire,' says Andy. 'She used to be an event coordinator and planner and all of that. I can take absolutely no credit for anything. Maire just completely ran with it and organized this whole wedding in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand.' 'I wanted the wedding to be a retreat for everybody. I wanted it to feel quite special and intimate. And so there were only 45 people invited,' says Maire. 'We had family traveling from all over New Zealand to attend, and then family from the UK and friends from the UK.' The wedding party caught the ferry from Wellington down to the Marlborough Sounds and all gathered at a 19th-century building called Furneaux Lodge to celebrate Maire and Andy's union. Maire and Andy wrote their own vows. Maire walked down the aisle to a piece of music from the movie 'Life is Beautiful' — an Oscar-winning Italian movie they saw together at the cinema not long after they first got together, and which Maire says 'really touched us both, and really spoke to us.' It was the perfect day. Maire and Andy wrote their own vows, recalling their relationship and harking back to that moment in Edinburgh when they went from friends to lovers. Maire took Andy's name, becoming Maire Bain. Today, more than two decades since their wedding, Andy and Maire — who took Andy's name following the wedding, becoming Maire Bain — live together in New Zealand, with two teenage daughters. They loved becoming parents and raising their children together. 'We really prioritized raising our kids,' says Maire. 'One of our big connections is our childhoods and a lot of your values come from what you experienced or didn't experience as a child, and so Andy and I went into parenting with a very strong sense of the kind of environment that we wanted to raise our kids in.' But now their daughters are getting older and the couple are enjoying spending time just the two of them again. This past January, they went to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia. 'We were at a time in our life where we had a lot of things to celebrate,' says Maire. 'We were coming up to our 22nd wedding anniversary. Our 25th year of knowing each other. It was my 10 year sober-versary. A whole lot of just good things to celebrate.' They're both big believers in signs and 'there were so many little things that would remind us of our wedding, or our 25 years together on that trip,' as Andy puts it. On the last night, Maire and Andy enjoyed a private dinner in their hotel. 'And then, Andy didn't know it, but I had snuck my wedding dress in my suitcase,' says Maire. She had the idea of surprising Andy with a hark back to their wedding. 'I'd had a word with the girls at the resort, and I'd said to them, 'He's going to walk in by himself. Give him a minute, and then if you could slip this song on, and then I'll walk in.'' The chosen track, of course, was the theme from the movie 'Life is Beautiful' — the music Maire walked down the aisle to 20 years earlier. When Andy heard the chords, he couldn't believe it. 'Our wedding music is on, and she's not here to hear it. 'What's going on?'' recalls Andy. 'And then I looked around to see where she was, and then she was just standing there, in her wedding dress with flowers, just there. And I was just like, 'Oh, it's the single most romantic thing that's ever happened to me.' It was stunning. It was absolutely amazing. And she looks as beautiful now as she did then. It was just so cool and just so wonderful.' As they sat there together, wiping away tears, laughing, Andy and Maire found themselves reflecting on the wedding, their life together since and the train meeting that started it all. Maire and Andy no longer smoke, but Maire jokes that because she met Andy, she's 'so grateful I smoked back then.' In general, when Maire reflects on her life with Andy, 'grateful' is the word she keeps coming back to. 'And supported. I feel really supported,' she reflects. 'We've learned within our marriage and individually as well, and we've supported each other's individual growth, and that comes from that friendship as well…Our love has grown so strong over the decades. He is the most gorgeous man.' As for Andy, he says Maire is 'still the coolest person I've ever met.' 'I love watching her at parties and stuff like that. She's the kind of person that lights up a room,' he says. 'I'm just so grateful to have found her, because I cannot think of anyone better for me than Maire, she's still my best friend. I still have the best chats with her. She makes me laugh more than anyone else, and the great joy of my life is when I can make her laugh.' It's this strong friendship that's kept the couple solid through life's ups and downs — because as Andy says, 'like all real, true relationships' there have been tougher moments during their 25 years together. 'Through it all, our friendship has been there,' he says. 'And it just feels weirdly fated. There were so many things that could have stopped us meeting… Right person, right place, right time… I just feel like in this really weird way if the universe has got a plan for you, and there's something there, it's going to happen.'
CNN
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Her boyfriend fell asleep on the train. Then she spent the six-hour journey talking to her future husband
New Zealander Maire Clifford was gazing out the window on a train traveling from London to Edinburgh, Scotland. The train was weaving north out of King's Cross station, with cityscapes gradually morphing into stretches of green fields. It was the year 2000. Maire was in her late 20s and had been living in the UK for a couple of years. She was currently dating a bartender, who was joining her on the trip. Gazing out the window was only interesting up to a point — and Maire's boyfriend was out cold, fast asleep in the seat next to her. The train journey was set to take six hours. 'I was like, 'Okay, this is going to be really boring,'' Maire recalls to CNN Travel today. 'So I went through to the smoking carriage.' Back in the early 2000s, the UK had yet to introduce a smoking ban on public transport. In designated areas of the London to Edinburgh train, passengers were permitted to light a cigarette. Back then, Maire was a social smoker. She walked into the smoking area of the train and found it almost empty, aside from a young guy with a large backpack. She asked him for a light and he obliged, smiling. 'And then somehow I sat down, and we started talking,' recalls Maire. 'And I just remember being struck by how easy, like there was a real sense of familiarity.' The man with the lighter was Andy Bain, a 27-year-old who'd grown up in England with Scottish family. Now he was based in Edinburgh, but he'd just returned from a stint traveling across Tanzania and Zanzibar. 'That was me going home to Edinburgh — having been overseas — on the train where we met for the first time,' Andy tells CNN Travel. Time away from the UK had given Andy the headspace to think and reconsider his approach to life, relationships, work and travel. 'I'd kind of not had a great relationship prior to Maire, and not really any great relationships, I guess,' he reflects today. 'I'm not putting any blame or anything. People just are wrong for each other. But I made this conscious decision that I wasn't going to be seeking a relationship. I wasn't going to basically talk to anyone or put myself out there in any way, shape or form. I just needed to get my head back together.' Then, while camping in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Crater, Andy was struck by the incredible beauty of the landscape and reassessed this approach. 'It's this beautiful natural safari reserve and we were camping right on the rim of it,' he recalls. 'I got up in the morning and there was a herd of zebras drinking from the campsite waterfall… I kind of just sat there, and I was like, 'Well, whatever you've done in your life, or whatever has been done to you — good or bad — it's led you to this amazing thing, which is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life.' And then I was just like, 'Well, I think it's just time to get back out there, open yourself up again to the world and see what happens.'' Andy flew back to London, happened to miss his booked train to Edinburgh and ended up, by coincidence, on the same train as Maire. Andy will never forget the moment Maire first walked through the door of the carriage. 'I'm sitting in the smoking compartment, and then the train starts, and then the door slides open and this one walks through and looks at me and says, 'Have you got a light?'' recalls Andy, smiling. 'So not only was it immediately after I'd kind of said, 'I'm going to open myself up to the world.' But I'd missed the train that I was supposed to be on. And then the first person that I really met after that decision, through that kind of happy accident, was Maire.' Today, looking back, Andy says the series of unexpected, life changing events made him 'believe in fate.' But in that moment, on that day on the train in the year 2000, neither Andy nor Maire had any idea of the significance of their meeting. For one, from the outset, Maire told Andy she was traveling with a boyfriend. They both saw their unexpected travel connection as grounded in potential friendship, rather than romantic promise. Still, Maire was struck by the thought that 'the connection was unreal' with Andy. They were strangers, but they opened up quickly. 'He obviously told me the story that he just shared with you about the Ngorongoro Crater,' says Maire. 'That's also what I was struck by… I think that it takes a certain type of person to be able to notice those special moments when they happen.' In turn, Maire shared stories of her childhood in New Zealand, of moving to the UK and her subsequent travels across Europe. It felt, she says, like 'both of us had that approach to life of just, I think, really noticing the special moments and being impressed by the beauty in the world.' After a while, Maire's mind turned back to her sleeping boyfriend in the other carriage. She figured she should go back and check on him. But she found him where she'd left him, still out cold. 'He was still sleeping. So then came back to Andy's carriage, and so we just talked and talked over the rest of the six-hour, seven-hour journey,' says Maire. 'I remember him saying to me, 'Oh, you're a really sound lady.'' She'd never really heard the expression before — it seemed very British, and made her laugh. Andy was sweet, Maire thought. But there was nothing obviously romantic between them. It was just a connection, a potential friendship, forged on a train speeding up to Scotland. Both figured it was as likely they'd never meet again. But they enjoyed the moment. 'It was a really easy chat,' says Andy. 'Just kind of our whole general vibe just clicked…I don't remember thinking, 'She's really hot,' you know, or anything like that. It was just, 'She's really cool.' And it was really, really nice just to have just such an easy conversation with someone. There was no effort. It was just so, so simple.' 'It wasn't like, 'Ah he's hot,'' agrees Maire. 'It was just like, 'Ah, he's cool.'' As the train continued up the East Coast main line, tracing the coastline at North Berwick before offering travelers their first glimpse of Arthur's Seat, the ancient extinct volcano that looms over Edinburgh, Maire spontaneously wrote down her email address on Andy's leftover anti-malaria tablet packet. 'Stay in touch,' she said, before saying goodbye. When Maire left the smokers' carriage, Andy heard the two travelers behind him react. 'They were two younger guys, sitting behind me — and one just turned to the other and went 'Un-flipping-believable,'' Andy recalls, laughing. 'Because to them, I'd just been sitting there, and then this hot chick sat down, and we'd got on, and then swapped details. I mean, that just doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen. I just remember that was just really funny.' The train pulled into Edinburgh Waverly station and Andy hauled his bag onto his back and traipsed back to his apartment. Meanwhile, Maire disembarked the train with her boyfriend for the sightseeing weekend in Scotland. 'When I got off the train… and that whole weekend around Edinburgh, I kept, even though I was with that other person, I kept thinking, 'I hope I bump into that guy Andy again,'' recalls Maire. She didn't. But a week or so later, Maire dropped Andy a friendly email: 'Hey traveling man,' the message began. 'And then we started emailing back and forth,' she recalls. A couple weeks later, Maire told her best friend Trudy about her new pen pal. She described the story of how they'd met on the train, kept each other company for the duration of the journey and swapped details. 'I remember Trudy saying to me, 'I think that there's something between you two.' And I was like, 'Oh, don't be ridiculous. He's so nice. Just a good friend.' But the emails didn't drop off. In fact, they became more frequent as the weeks turned into months. 'We ended up just communicating on the reg, and that progressed from emails to phone calls,' recalls Maire. By then, Maire's bartender boyfriend was in the past. But she still didn't see Andy as a potential love interest. 'Then, for my birthday, he sent me a book: 'Where the Wild Things Are,'' recalls Maire. 'It just so happened to be, not that he knew this, my favorite childhood book. And as I unwrapped it, and I hadn't seen that book cover for decades, it just really touched a deep part in me. I felt really seen that he would select such a cool present for me.' Andy genuinely had no idea of the significance of the book for Maire. He'd been inspired to buy it for her after an email exchange where he'd shared he was stressed at work and Maire offered some advice. 'She'd said, 'Oh just imagine that we're on a boat, floating in the sea, and everything's really relaxing,'' he says. 'And then in my head, what I saw was the boat from 'Where the Wild Things Are.'' Andy and Maire's shared love of the Maurice Sendak picture book felt like another sign of their deep connection. And shortly afterwards, Andy called Maire to let her know he'd be down in London for work. 'We arranged to go out in Shoreditch that night and have a big catch up,' recalls Maire. 'We went out and got pretty trashed.' Maire ended up crashing at Andy's hotel. But just as a friend. Nothing romantic happened between them. 'We were still just good friends,' says Andy. 'When I said, 'You can come and stay in my hotel room, it was literally as a mate.'' 'I jokingly say, it's probably because I had a bit of lettuce hanging off my cheek from falling asleep into my kebab,' says Maire. 'But I really felt like he proved in that moment that he's a man of integrity, and a man that I could be safe around, and that he was who I thought he was.' The next day, Andy struggled through a hangover at his work training course. But on the train back to Edinburgh, his phone buzzed with a message from Maire. 'I remember getting a text from her just going, 'I've come home with the biggest smile on my face, and it's all because of you. Andy Bain. It was just such a great, great evening.'' Andy smiled back at his Nokia 8110 cell phone. Then he found himself thinking back on their conversations from the night before. 'We just chatted about stuff that felt important to us as people,' he says. 'It wasn't small talk… And then the next thing, Maire was talking about coming up to Edinburgh for Hogmanay (Scottish New Year's Eve celebrations) with a group of friends.' Andy immediately invited Maire and her friends to stay with him in Edinburgh. But while Maire's friends celebrated the new year in the city's bars and pubs, Andy and Maire largely stayed in Andy's apartment, spending every moment together deep in conversation. 'That first night, we sat on the sofa and we talked for eight hours,' Maire recalls. 'About halfway through that conversation, he says to me, 'Do you believe in soulmates… Because I think that you're mine.'' This conversation was still couched in terms of friendship. But the two spent the next 'three days together, just talking.' 'And then, on the third day, we're sitting there talking, and he reaches over and he puts his hand on my knee, and he says, 'I really love you,'' recalls Maire. 'And I'm like, 'I really love you too.' And he's like, 'No, I'm in love with you.'' Maire stared at Andy, in disbelief, for a moment. But deep down, she knew his words were true. That she felt the same. 'We hadn't even kissed,' she says today. 'It was just our values on things were so the same,' explains Andy. 'Our experiences of things were so the same… That's why I said the soulmate thing. Because it just felt different to any other kind of friendship that I'd ever had. It hit me, the realization that, 'I just love you. I'm in love with you.'' Andy said the words aloud without thinking. He knew they were true. They felt right. 'It wasn't a play, or it wasn't a move, or it wasn't something that I really thought about,' he says. 'It was just, it was a physical need that I needed to say it.' Still, something had shifted between Maire and Andy in that moment. 'I knew that despite my fear of ruining our amazing connection, I had to give it a shot,' Maire says. 'We kissed for the first time,' says Andy. 'It wasn't a disaster, all of that kind of good stuff. We were compatible as boyfriend and girlfriend, as well as friends.' Maire went back to London, but she returned a week later to surprise Andy for his birthday. 'She had phoned loads of my friends and we had this impromptu party,' he recalls. 'It was really lovely, one of the nicest things that anyone's ever done for me.' From there, Maire and Andy started dating long distance, commuting between London and Edinburgh, traveling back and forth on the train line where they first met. They both coped with the distance in different ways. 'As soon as we were apart, I'd be like, 'Oh yeah, cool, whatever.' But Maire would really miss me, but then the longer time went on, I would start to miss her, but she would…not get over me, but wouldn't miss me as much,' says Andy, laughing. 'There was a bit of a mismatch there, but we would meet up again and, like, bang, everything would be awesome.' After several months of goodbyes and train journeys up and down the country, Andy managed to transfer to his company's London office. Living together 'just was really easy, it was really natural,' says Andy. And about six weeks after he'd moved south, Andy had a revelation. 'Into my head popped the thought: 'This girl's amazing. She's so beautiful, so amazing, so cool. You should marry her.'' Andy surprised himself with the thought. His parents were divorced. He'd never really thought about marriage. He wasn't sure he really believed in the concept. But then he found himself thinking about his paternal grandparents, who'd been happily in love for decades before they passed away. 'When I was born, my granddad bought my grandmother a ring, because I was the first grandchild — this gold ring that she wore. And then when she passed, I got it, and I had it on a chain around my neck,' Andy recalls. 'And when I had this thought to marry Maire, we were in Paddington Station, amongst all the Burger King wrappers or whatever… And so I got my ring off my neck, I got down on one knee, and I said, 'Will you marry me?'' Maire, of course, said yes. The couple embraced in the busy train concourse. 'Then we were on the train and we've just got engaged, so we're all cuddly and smoochy and giggly,' says Maire. 'And I had a really incredibly strong sense of two people standing next to me.' Maire looked up, and there was no one there. She thought about Andy's grandparents — the ones who'd passed on the ring. She wondered if the sensation she'd felt was the older couple watching over them. 'I said to Andy, 'I feel like this is for you. I feel like they want you to know that they're here, this is for you.'' Then, that night, Maire dreamed that Andy's grandparents spoke to her, saying: 'Welcome to the family.' 'I woke up Andy, and I said to him, 'I got it all wrong. That wasn't for you. That was for me.'' It felt significant. And even more so when, later on, Maire and Andy relayed Maire's dream to Andy's mother. 'My mum went white as a sheet,' recalls Andy. 'And we were like, 'What? What?' And she said when my dad had taken my mum up to Edinburgh to meet his family — and my granddad was this kind of staunch Scottish guy — he'd stood up from his chair and said, 'Welcome to the family,' to her — those exact words.' 'I know not everybody believes in that kind of stuff,' says Maire. 'But for us, this was a really special moment… And the ring was all about celebrating Andy's existence. So it's a real honor to wear it and to look after it.' Maire and Andy got married a couple of years later in 2003, in Maire's native New Zealand. 'Maire's a planner extraordinaire,' says Andy. 'She used to be an event coordinator and planner and all of that. I can take absolutely no credit for anything. Maire just completely ran with it and organized this whole wedding in the Marlborough Sounds of New Zealand.' 'I wanted the wedding to be a retreat for everybody. I wanted it to feel quite special and intimate. And so there were only 45 people invited,' says Maire. 'We had family traveling from all over New Zealand to attend, and then family from the UK and friends from the UK.' The wedding party caught the ferry from Wellington down to the Marlborough Sounds and all gathered at a 19th-century building called Furneaux Lodge to celebrate Maire and Andy's union. Maire and Andy wrote their own vows. Maire walked down the aisle to a piece of music from the movie 'Life is Beautiful' — an Oscar-winning Italian movie they saw together at the cinema not long after they first got together, and which Maire says 'really touched us both, and really spoke to us.' It was the perfect day. Maire and Andy wrote their own vows, recalling their relationship and harking back to that moment in Edinburgh when they went from friends to lovers. Maire took Andy's name, becoming Maire Bain. Today, more than two decades since their wedding, Andy and Maire — who took Andy's name following the wedding, becoming Maire Bain — live together in New Zealand, with two teenage daughters. They loved becoming parents and raising their children together. 'We really prioritized raising our kids,' says Maire. 'One of our big connections is our childhoods and a lot of your values come from what you experienced or didn't experience as a child, and so Andy and I went into parenting with a very strong sense of the kind of environment that we wanted to raise our kids in.' But now their daughters are getting older and the couple are enjoying spending time just the two of them again. This past January, they went to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, Australia. 'We were at a time in our life where we had a lot of things to celebrate,' says Maire. 'We were coming up to our 22nd wedding anniversary. Our 25th year of knowing each other. It was my 10 year sober-versary. A whole lot of just good things to celebrate.' They're both big believers in signs and 'there were so many little things that would remind us of our wedding, or our 25 years together on that trip,' as Andy puts it. On the last night, Maire and Andy enjoyed a private dinner in their hotel. 'And then, Andy didn't know it, but I had snuck my wedding dress in my suitcase,' says Maire. She had the idea of surprising Andy with a hark back to their wedding. 'I'd had a word with the girls at the resort, and I'd said to them, 'He's going to walk in by himself. Give him a minute, and then if you could slip this song on, and then I'll walk in.'' The chosen track, of course, was the theme from the movie 'Life is Beautiful' — the music Maire walked down the aisle to 20 years earlier. When Andy heard the chords, he couldn't believe it. 'Our wedding music is on, and she's not here to hear it. 'What's going on?'' recalls Andy. 'And then I looked around to see where she was, and then she was just standing there, in her wedding dress with flowers, just there. And I was just like, 'Oh, it's the single most romantic thing that's ever happened to me.' It was stunning. It was absolutely amazing. And she looks as beautiful now as she did then. It was just so cool and just so wonderful.' As they sat there together, wiping away tears, laughing, Andy and Maire found themselves reflecting on the wedding, their life together since and the train meeting that started it all. Maire and Andy no longer smoke, but Maire jokes that because she met Andy, she's 'so grateful I smoked back then.' In general, when Maire reflects on her life with Andy, 'grateful' is the word she keeps coming back to. 'And supported. I feel really supported,' she reflects. 'We've learned within our marriage and individually as well, and we've supported each other's individual growth, and that comes from that friendship as well…Our love has grown so strong over the decades. He is the most gorgeous man.' As for Andy, he says Maire is 'still the coolest person I've ever met.' 'I love watching her at parties and stuff like that. She's the kind of person that lights up a room,' he says. 'I'm just so grateful to have found her, because I cannot think of anyone better for me than Maire, she's still my best friend. I still have the best chats with her. She makes me laugh more than anyone else, and the great joy of my life is when I can make her laugh.' It's this strong friendship that's kept the couple solid through life's ups and downs — because as Andy says, 'like all real, true relationships' there have been tougher moments during their 25 years together. 'Through it all, our friendship has been there,' he says. 'And it just feels weirdly fated. There were so many things that could have stopped us meeting… Right person, right place, right time… I just feel like in this really weird way if the universe has got a plan for you, and there's something there, it's going to happen.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
135 Cool Pirate Names for Arr-some Boys and Girls
For those of us who have adventure in our veins, a simple name just won't do. And for those of us who love to feel the salty breeze through our hair and on our skin—and hear the crashing of the ocean's waves—the only choice is a name befitting of a pirate. Historically, these privateers are largely seen as villains. But that doesn't have to be the case! There are plenty of pirate names to choose from that have noble and upstanding meanings that would be perfect for your new little buccaneer addition. Not only do we have the best pirate baby names to choose from with historical and sea-worthy meanings, but we also have a list of funny names for you to use in play with your adventurous little children. Whatever your reasoning for searching for the perfect pirate name, look no further! Keep reading to find your 1. Beryl — This baby girl's name is of Greek origin and means "pale green precious stone."2. Dylan — In Welsh, this name means "born from the ocean" or "son of the sea."3. Aalto — This Finnish name means "wave."4. Maire — An Irish variation of the name Mary, Maire comes from the word "muir" meaning "sea." It's often attributed to the phrase "stella maris" which means "star of the sea."5. Pelagia — This means "of the sea" in Greek.6. Sandera — of Greek origins meaning "man's defender" or "warrior."7. Nahla — An Arabic name that means "drink of water" or "water in the desert."8. Umiko — This means "child of the sea" in Japanese.9. Apulia — A name given to pirates of the Apulia (Puglia in Italian) region in Southern Italy.10. Azure — A French, Latin and Arabic girl's name meaning "sky blue."11. Iona — Of Hebrew and Gaelic origins, Iona means "dove," "island" or "yew-place."12. Cutler — An Old English name for "knife-maker."13. Finn — From the Irish word "fionn" meaning "white" or "fair."14. Ada — Meaning "noble" in both German and Latin.15. Shai — Hebrew meaning "gift."16. Remi — From the Latin word "remigis" meaning "oar" or "oarsman."17. Adva — A Hebrew name meaning "little wave" or "ripple."18. Calico — This name suggestion comes from John "Calico Jack" Rackham, an English pirate from the 18th century. Calico Jack was a partial inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.19. Bourne — Means "one who lives by a stream," "stream" or "brook" and was primarily an English surname.20. Lysander — Originating from the Greek name Lysandros, this moniker means "liberator." In ancient history, Lysander was a Spartan naval and military commander.21. Nagisa — A Japanese name meaning "beach" or "shore."22. Sutton — An Old English name that means "southern settlement" or "from the south town."23. Ama — Of Native American and African descent meaning "water."24. Cheng — This name comes from Zheng Yi Sao, the name of a notorious Chinese pirate captain from the late 18th and early 19th centuries.25. Thane — Of Old English and Scottish origins, Thane means "landholder" or "military follower."26. Freeda — Derived from an Old English name meaning "elf counsel," this German name now means "peace" or "joy."27. Beckett — An Old English and German name that means "small brook" or "water."28. Gali — This Hebrew name means "wave."29. Brooke — Of English origin meaning "small stream."30. Amaya — This Japanese name means "night rain."31. Tarian — A Welsh name meaning "shield" or "coat of arms."32. Baia — Means "bay" in Portuguese, Italian and Spanish.33. Theo — From the Greek name Theodoros meaning "God's gift" or the Ancient German name Theobald which means "brave people" or "bold people."34. Aegea — This Greek name means "from the sea of Aegean."Related: 35. Celeste — Latin for "heavenly." 36. Hally — Of German origin this moniker means "army ruler" and in Old Norse it means "hero."37. Cordelia — This Irish means "daughter of the sea" and is perfect for any little pirate.38. Augusta — This name is Latin and means "exalted."39. Iseult — Means "she who is gazed upon" in Celtic.40. Pearl — Meaning the same as the precious stone, why not give your little girl the name of a beautiful gem found in the ocean?41. Marina — Means "sea maiden" in both Latin and Russian.42. Cassandra — A Greek name meaning "the one who shines or excels over men."43. Artemesia — Artemisia I of Caria was a Greek pirate queen.44. Charlotte — Means "free man" or "free woman" and was the name of a 17th-century English female pirate.45. Cleo — This cool-sounding name is Greek for "lark."46. Elizabetha — Elizabetha Patrickson raided English ships alongside her husband William in the 17th century.47. Isla — Meaning "island" in both Scottish and Spanish.48. Belle — This name is of French and Latin origin meaning "beautiful."49. Nami — Japanese for "wave" this name is often interpreted as "ocean wave."50. Isola — An Italian name meaning "island."51. Coral — A Latin name for "rock," Coral would be perfect for any sea-faring maiden.52. Portia — Meaning "an offering" and is used in several of Shakespeare's plays, including The Merchant of Venice.53. Ingela — Ingela Gathenheilm was a Swedish pirate queen in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.54. Breeza — This unique Aboriginal name means "one hill."55. Emeldreda — Old English for "universal ruler."56. Cherith — This Hebrew name means "winter stream."57. Daria — This Greek name means "wealthy" which is just what your little pirate will be with all that gold!58. Flora — Flora Burn was an English pirate during the Golden Age of Piracy. Flora means "flower" in Latin.59. Melody — A name of Greek origin that means "song."60. Grace — Derived from the Irish name Gráinne Ní Mhaille which is translated to Grace O'Malley in English, who was known as the Pirate Queen of Ireland.61. Cataline — Greek for "pure beauty."62. Elise — Elise Eskilsdotter was a Scandinavian pirate and noblewoman during the Middle Ages.63. Sirene — A Greek name meaning "enchanter."64. Nerina — This Greek name means "sea nymph."65. Evalyn — Eva means "life" in Hebrew and Lyn means "lake" in Welsh. Together, this is a French name that means "to live," "to breathe" and "lake."66. Isolde — An Old German name (of Welsh and Celtic origin) that means "one who is gazed at" or "iron ruler."67. Morwenna — A Cornish and Welsh name meaning "waves of the sea" or "maiden."Related: 68. Kinga — Means "brave in war" or "warrior" in Hungarian.69. Archer — English for "bowman."70. Bastian — This moniker originates from Germany and is the short version of the Greek name Sebastian. It means "venerable" or "revered."71. Sunny — Means "bright disposition" or "cheerful" in English.72. Saylor — German for "mariner."73. Caspian — Of English origin meaning "white" this name is often attributed to the Caspian Sea.74. Pasha — A title of honor in Turkey meaning "master" or "chief."75. Ivan — The Slavic form of the name John, Ivan means "God is gracious."76. Cael — This was the name of a warrior in Irish mythology. It comes from the Gaelic word "caol" meaning "slender."77. Laszlo — This Slavic name means "glorious ruler" or "ruler of glory."78. Ace — Meaning "excellent" or "highest rank" in Middle English.79. Ronan — Of Irish origin meaning "little seal."80. Lorcan — An Irish name meaning "little fierce one."81. Augie — This moniker stems from the Latin name Augustus and means "majestic" or "grand."82. Nico — Stemming from the Greek name Nikolaos meaning "victory of people."83. Cassian — A Latin name meaning "empty," "vain" or "hollow."84. Scout — Means "first explorer" in English and "watchman" in French.85. Cedric — Of Old English and Welsh origins meaning "beloved," "kindly" or "pattern of bounty."86. Finlay — Derived from the Gaelic name Fionnlagh which means "white warrior" or "fair-haired warrior."87. Benno — This name means "son of the right hand" in Hebrew and is derived from the Old Germanic word for "bear."88. Fabian — Of Latin origin, this name means "bean grower."89. Alek — Of Greek origin meaning "defender of men."90. Gawain — Of Scottish and Welsh origins this name means "little falcon" or "white falcon."91. Conley — An Irish name meaning "constant fire" or Gaelic for "a hero."92. Max — With origins from English, Latin and Ancient Roman, Max means "greatest."93. Hadrian — Derived from the Old Roman name Hadrianus which means "from Hadria" which came from the city of Adria in Italy.94. Dax — Meaning "leader" in Latin, "water" in French due to the commune of Dax or "badger" from the German surname Dachs.95. Castor — From the Greek name Kastor meaning "to shine."96. Galen — This Greek name means "calm" or "serene." It comes from the Greek word "galenos" which means "tranquil."97. Hugo — Means "bright in mind and spirit" or "intellect" in German.98. Fenix — Derived from Phoenix, the mythical bird, or the Greek word "phoînix" which means "dark-red" or "crimson."99. Alistair — Of Scottish and Greek origins meaning "defender of the people" or "man's defender."100. Emmett — Meaning "whole," "universal" or "entire." This name is thought to come from the Hebrew word "emet" which means "truth."101. Cole — This moniker is derived from the Old English word "cola" and means "swarthy" or "coal-like, black."Related: Want to give your little one a funny pirate nickname? There's nothing that would make them giggle more than being called "Cap'n Crackers" or "Peg-Leg Pete" during a rowdy day of swashbuckling. Give one of these a try and see how big they smile! 102. Blackbeard the Ticklish103. Jolly Roger104. Captain Snaggletooth (perfect for those with a loose tooth)105. Barnacle Betty106. Captain Crabby107. Captain Sea Legs108. Barnacle Bill109. Groggy Gus110. Captain Cutlass111. Patchy Pete112. One-Eyed Wacky Jack113. Whiskerbeard the Witty114. Rotten Roger115. Captain Chuckles Cannonball116. Scruffy Scallywag117. Cap'n Crackers118. Sharkbait Steve119. Seadog the Silly120. Squinty McSquawk121. Gigglin' Gary Goldtooth122. Seadog Grog Bog123. Plunderin' Pete124. Blackbeard the Belly-Laugh125. Scurvy Sam (gotta eat your oranges!)126. Cap'n Slapdash127. Peg-Leg Pete128. Peg-Leg Polly129. Bellylaugh Buccaneer130. Stinky Steve131. Sea Shanty Shannon132. Captain Crunch (bonus points if this is their favorite cereal!)133. Ahoy Annie134. Swashbucklin' Sal135. Captain BlubberbellyUp Next:
